Via TransilvanicaThe oldest casino in Romania
This is no brochure phrase: the building in Vatra Dornei came before all the others, including the one in Constanța, which opened only in 1910.
Culture · 45 minutes from our gate
Bucovina's finest building stood thirty years with the sky on it. Since 2023 you can walk back in.
In 1895, Vatra Dornei had springs, it had a railway, it had guests coming from Vienna for the mineral water. It had nowhere to keep them in the evening. The mayor, Vasile Deac, a man of the mountains, went to Vienna and came back with the emperor's consent.
Four years later, on 10 July 1899, a building opened that resembled nothing else in Bucovina: a great hall with gilded stucco, a library, a confectioner's, a theatre, conversation rooms. The model had been the casino at Baden, the spa near Vienna where the imperial court spent its summers. For a whole century it was held to be the most beautiful building in the province.
Then came nationalisation, and after 1990 nobody at all. The roof gave way, the stucco fell, the ballroom filled with rubble. Thirty years it stood like that, in the middle of the park, its windows boarded up.
Restoration began in April 2019 and finished in November 2023. The ornaments were reproduced from the pieces found on the floor. On 28 November 2023, on Bucovina Day, the doors opened again — this time as a museum.
the year it opened
10 July, after three years of building
million lei
the cost of the restoration, largely European funds
years of ruin
from the nineties until the works began
the reopening
28 November, on Bucovina Day
A hundred and thirty years
The central volume, the tallest part of the building. The stucco and the artistic components were restored piece by piece. Concerts and formal sittings are held here today.
The vaulted cellars were deliberately left unplastered, with the brickwork exposed. It is the most unexpected place in the whole building: warm, intimate, entirely unlike the floor above.
Massive steps, rebuilt during the restoration. You climb exactly where the guests who came by train from Vienna climbed.
Photography from the Austrian period, documents about the spa and about Bucovina, plus rooms for temporary exhibitions.
The names recorded by the museum, from the emperor onwards.
Why it matters
This is no brochure phrase: the building in Vatra Dornei came before all the others, including the one in Constanța, which opened only in 1910.
The model was the casino at Baden, the spa near Vienna where the imperial court spent its summers. Eclectic style, with German Renaissance Revival touches.
Part of the money came from a public collection, to which Franz Joseph also contributed. The rest from a loan. The town built its own drawing room.
Code SV-II-m-A-05670 in the List of Historic Monuments. The letter A means national, not merely local, interest.
Tickets
indicative prices, confirmed at the desk
Hours
Where
Strada Republicii 5, Vatra Dornei
about 41 km from our gate, 45 minutes by car
Take me to the casino →We checked all of this in . The data comes from cazinoul-bailor.ro and from the releases of the Archdiocese of Suceava and Rădăuți at the reopening. Opening hours and prices have a habit of changing without telling anyone, so ring ahead before you set off. Or just ask us.
While you are in Vatra Dornei
A base for these days out
The house is in Câmpulung, in the middle of the map: the monasteries east, the mountains west, the steam train north. You don't drive far to get anywhere.